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Miraculously,
It's just God-stuff
By Jerri
Phillips
As I write this, my dad
is in the hospital. I am waiting for a
phone call from my mom to inform me of
the doctors' findings and plans for
further treatment. As I wait, I am
praying about God's plan of action. You
see, the reality is that my dad's illness
is beyond doctors' ability. Let me
explain.
About three months ago, my dad had some
blackouts. Thankfully, nothing major
except for a black eye and a cut
resulting from gravity doing its job when
Dad fell. It appeared Dad was having mild
strokes, and that had to be addressed. To
fix that, Dad went into the hospital to
have angioplasty done, but all four
arteries in his heart are more than 60%
clogged. They could not do angioplasty.
Immediately a surgeon was called, and we
prepared for a quadruple bypass. However,
there was a problem. Dad has emphysema,
and they had to determine if he was
healthy enough to survive surgery, so
they ran a battery of tests on his lungs,
which showed that he has a form of
fibrosis from working with solvents as a
machinists for over two decades. In no
way was he a candidate for surgery.
Therefore, he was sent home with a new
regimen of medicine for the fibrosis and
heart problems.
Then the blackout
spells increased, and Dad ended up in the
emergency room. They then decided Dad was
reacting to the new lung medications, and
those had to be changed. In the midst of
this, they found that Dad also had an
irregular heartbeat, which can only be
fixed with a defibrillator, but again,
would his lungs handle surgery to put
that in? They think so as long as they
only do a local, but there are no
guarantees. Still, in two weeks they plan
on trying surgery hoping that the
fibrosis treatment will have made enough
difference to get Dad through surgery
safely. So we wait, and during this time
of waiting, Dad has had another blackout
with symptoms of a larger stroke. And
that brings us to today when Dad is in
the hospital with wires running
everywhere as people try to figure out
what is happening, why, and how to fix
it.
I am not delusional. I realize that there
is nothing the doctors can do. They are
doing the best they can, but come on.
Dad's body is falling apart, and the more
he sees doctors, the worse the diagnosis
becomes. Not that I think they are
causing him to get sicker, but they keep
finding bad things. It seems to me that
there is only one solution: quit
depending on limited doctors and depend
fully on an unlimited God.
Oh, I know. That is what you were
expecting to hear. Believe me, I hear
people say it a lot. In the last three
months, I have been told by virtually
everyone I know that they are praying for
us, but I don't just want prayers. I want
faith. I want people to truly depend on
God through this with us. Some of you are
wondering what I mean. Again, let me
explain.
In the last few months, we have been told
numerous times that people are praying,
and we often hear things like, "We
are praying for your dad and for you.
It's hard when someone you love is
terminal." "We will be praying
for your dad, and pray that God gives you
peace." "We'll be praying for
your dad and for your family; losses like
this are hard." "We'll be
praying. I know this is hard, but
remember, everyone has an appointed
time." You know what those messages
tell me? They scream, "We expect
your dad to die. It's just a matter of
time." If you expect Dad to die,
then what is there to pray for? A speedy
death? An easy death? Why pray if you
honestly do not expect God to answer?
Now, understand, I am not writing this
from the perspective of a stressed
daughter watching her dad going slowly
downhill. I am fully aware of my dad's
health. I have been for a long time, but
I'm not stressed. I'm not upset. I'm not
scared. Why should I be? Enough people
are upset, sad, and scared for me. And
why are they upset when I am not? Because
they are expecting Dad to die while I
expect God to show up and be God.
Now, most of these praying people are
Christians and profess to believe in
miracles, and yet they don't expect them.
Why not? Maybe people don't expect
miracles because they don't grasp the
reality of miracles.
First of all, what are miracles? Miracles
are occurrences the human mind considers
beyond possible. We realize that the
probability of a particular occurrence is
virtually non-existent, and thus, it
can't possibly happen. For God, it's no
big deal. Let me give you a simple
example.
Take a box. Close it up. Put your dark,
empty box in a closet. In six days get it
out, open it up, and see what is in it.
What do you expect to find? Nothing. None
of us expect to find anything, unless of
course the children find it and then it's
anyone's guess. What if I told you that
an entire ecosystem with diverse plants,
animals, and intelligent life was going
to develop there in only six days? You'd
laugh because it is impossible for that
to happen. Now look at it from God's
side. He looked out over His nothing and
said, "Let there be light," and
there was. He keeps talking, and six days
later when He is done, there is an entire
universe, the earth, plants, animals, and
mankind. Wow. What our brain cannot
fathom, what we cannot see as remotely
possible, God looks at and fills in the
blanks. I don't think God saw that empty
blackness as a challenge. I think He saw
it as an empty canvass full of
possibility, and I think He looks at
other impossible situations the same way.
Specifically, my dad has junk in his
arteries that blocks his blood flow.
Sounds serious. However, my God is the
One opened a sea because it prevented His
chosen people from crossing. My God is
the One who stopped a river at flood
stage because a priest had the faith to
step into the raging water, and as a
result, the people of Israel had the
ability to walk into Canaan without
getting wet. Granted, with my dad there
are extenuating circumstances; namely,
his lungs and heart and veins and
arteries. That's a pretty long list.
Hmmm. But I guess if God can use a blind,
egotistical guy with an eye for women to
pull down some columns and destroy God's
enemies, God can handle a small list like
the circulatory system and respiratory
system in one person.
So, I guess my point is God has never
been significantly concerned with what
was impossible, so what would compel me
to think He is now? If God's definition
of a miracle…come to think of it,
does God even have a definition for
miracle? Does God have anything but
normal stuff? I mean, think about it. Did
God break a sweat when He created the
universe? I don't read that He did. What
kind of stress did it take for Jesus to
bring Lazarus back to life? He said,
"Lazarus, come forth." So, if
God and Jesus speak and the
"impossible" happens, then is
that miraculous for Them, or is it simply
responding to a situation in the way They
desire? I don't think God uses the word
miracle. I think it is a human word used
when God just does God stuff in what we
consider impossible situations.
And that leads me back to the situation
with my dad and why I expect a
"miracle." The situation meets
the two criteria of a miracle: the
situation seems impossible, and God is
still doing God stuff. All it takes is
for God to speak, and I believe He still
does that, so I am expecting a miracle.
Well, actually, I don't really expect
anything miraculous. I just expect God to
keep being God and doing His thing, and
sadly, when it comes to human thinking,
that may well be the most miraculous
thing of all.
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